Town's leaders quit in parking storm
GOSPORT council leader Mark Hook has sensationally resigned and taken his entire administration with him after finally losing the war over car parking charges.
The Tory leader, who has run the council since July 2004, dramatically walked out of the council chamber last night with his 16 party colleagues, plunging the council into chaos.
The power vacuum comes with crunch budget decisions looming, and the council in danger of hiking its council tax bill by more than the government-imposed maximum of five per cent. The bombshell move came after opposition councillors finally forced through their plan to introduce free short-term parking in Gosport town centre.
The casting vote of Labour Mayor June Cully pushed through a motion which will see shoppers able to park for free from Monday.
As opposition councillors celebrated, a furious Mr Hook said: 'In view of the fact that this is the seventh time the casting vote has been used against the Conservative administration, I think it is time that we moved on.
'It is quite clear that the Lib-Lab coalition chooses to run this authority and I give notice now that I resign as leader of this council and my administration resign forthwith.'
The Tories then marched out of the chamber, a move slammed as 'disgraceful' by opposition Lib Dems.
Before the resignation Mr Hook had tried to convince the opposition members, who together have the same number of councillors as the Tories, not to make parking free.
He said the move would mean the council making cuts of 1m next year, with 350,000 directly due to the scrapping of charges – a claim dismissed by opponents.
The Labour and Liberal Democrat groups will now meet in the coming days to thrash out who will take charge. Lib Dem leader Dave Smith said: 'I think a knee-jerk reaction now would be the wrong thing to do.'
But he added: 'This just goes to show that the Conservatives were not fit to run the council.'
Labour deputy leader Dennis Wright said: 'This is the best thing for Gosport without a doubt. We are the smallest party in the council, it will be up to the Lib Dems to decide what they want to do.'
After the meeting Mr Hook said: 'I'm not sure they understand the severity of our financial situation – but now they will have to make the difficult decisions.'
Next Page: The crisis waiting to happen
gary.cleland@thenews.co.ukMark Hook staked his leadership on the political battle over car parking charges, and lost.
But the chaos now engulfing Gosport Town Hall has been almost inevitable since elections in May.
Those elections stripped the ruling Tory party of its majority and left the council with a precarious balance, as the 17 Tories lined up against 17 opponents – nine Lib Dems and eight Labour.
Since then one Labour councillor, Neil Redrup, has become an independent, but continued to vote with his former colleagues.
That led to deadlock – the most spectacular example of which has been the seesaw fight over parking charges introduced by the Tories in November 2004.
The Lib Dems promised to introduce free, short-term car parking for Gosport town centre and soon teamed up with Labour to deliver.
With a Labour mayor this year, Cllr June Cully, the Lib-Lab coalition forced through the issue in July on her casting vote.
But the Tories brought the issue back before the full council in September only to lose again.
Then just last week the Tories took advantage of Lib Dem Deputy Mayor Keith Gill being on holiday to overturn the decision by one vote, meaning short-stay town centre parking charges were back on the agenda.
But opposition members countered by calling last night's extraordinary council meeting after the return of Cllr Gill from Australia, and succeeding in suspending charges until January.
Faced with another two years of stalemate and struggle before the next council elections in May 2008 the Tories finally pulled the plug.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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